Friday, October 15, 2010

My children were out from school this week, and I also got to watch over my godchildren during this time to allow their parents to work without getting extra babysitting. So, we put together a little game.

Our little party consisted of my children's two characters (Faun Fighter named Russel played by 6year old boy, and Phaerim MU named Jessica played by 7year old girl). Adding to that were the new recruits, another Phaerim but this time as a Druid played by 8year old girl, and a Bisren Ranger played by a 10year old boy. All characters were still 1st level. I utilized supplements to help round out the party (in the skill sense) because the newcomers wanted essentially the same sorts of characters that were already in play. Using a Druid, explaining that they were sort of nature oriented spell casters worked great for a little girl to want to play. The older child was very excited about being big and tough as a Bisren (races taken from the supplement called "New Races" which by the way was written by me).

There was a little hesitancy to get the game going, and character creation was a tad slow. I kept having to say "almost ready". It helped later when I was explaining that the game involved all these aspects of play... making characters, organizing, and simply just sitting around the table to enjoy each other's company and talk about this sort of stuff. Basically explaining that this is a social game... not just about the rolling of the dice. Of course, the excitement level jumped when we did a little combat.

The combat began as the two warrior types entered a spooky dungeon chamber filled with bones. The two heard noises as the skeletons, which were in pieces around the room began to shift and assemble themselves into the proper form. The two warriors dealt with them quickly. The spell casting girls came in later after the fight was basically over. The next chamber had additional skeletons to deal with, including one that was an amalgamation of several skeletons. Combat was a little more harrowing as Russel went down (I use a death's door -10hp = death mechanic - kids here after all). Anyhow, the kids used their resources well without much prompting, moving in to save characters who were wounded and being cognizant that each had particular strengths (and overall weakness for the MU of the group).

After passing through a teleporting archway (effectively committing the characters to the further exploration of the dungeon), the group comes upon a ghost-like being. Instead of assaulting the already battered group directly, the apparition instead summoned rats and bats (giant varieties) to attack. It took just a little prompting, but the druid of the group quickly realized that she had an ability to utilize here (Animal Affinity, like clerical turning). She was unsuccessful in her die roll, but it was clear that they were processing stuff about their characters and what each could do well. A sleep spell by the MU took out the bulk of the rats/bats and the group dispatched them. The ghostly apparition passed down into the floor to disappear (their first BBEG, big bad evil guy), which will set them up for a recurring appearance.

That wrapped up our time, and we had appointments to deal with, but I am pretty sure that little game sucked in a couple more players. The kids just chatted away about the game and their characters... and they did not want to go home, asking to come back Friday for more (which was not on the parent's agenda).

AND... after I got home later, right after dropping off our two guests, I find a box from Lulu containing my 2 coil-bound copies of BFRPG rules!! I wish I could have had them available for the kids to browse through, but I think it will help next time around. If I have another session of gaming and find the excitement level continues, then I think I know what Xmas gifts will be this time around.